I Knew Chelsea Manning in Basic Combat Training. Here’s the Story You Haven’t Heard

January 2017 – as one of his final acts in office, President Obama yesterday commuted the 35-year prison sentence of Chelsea Manning down to just four years with a scheduled release date of 17 May 2017. For supporters, it must have been an unbelievable victory, and for her critics, an outrage. For those that have known her, there’s an added dimension of anecdotes, personal interactions, and concrete memories of her conduct, all of which color the quality of that commutation. She is a hero to some, a traitor to others. Either she was an idealistic do-gooder who was intent on revealing state-sponsored human rights violations while exposing the darkest corners of the U.S. Government, or she was a coward suffering delusions of grandeur who invented enemies to blame, lashed out at her own country, and revealed nothing but her own self-sponsored narcissism. Which one is accurate? Let me tell you a story.

In the Manning saga, the debate has always been over her state of mind leading up to and during the theft and dissemination of that classified information. There is no debate regarding the basic facts of what she did and what was done with her. During her 2009-2010 deployment to Iraq, she stole diplomatic cables, daily intelligence reports, and combat footage; she fed that information to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, then separately admitted to as much to a grey-hat hacker named Adrian Lamo, who in-turn contacted U.S. Army Counterintelligence. She was convicted in 2013 on 17 original charges and four more amended charges, including violating the Espionage Act, for her role in illegally disclosing over 700,000 pages of classified documents. To date, Manning has been tried, convicted, imprisoned, and as of yesterday, scheduled for release.

As such, Manning has been a specter in the background of the Obama presidency and a central figure in national debates about everything from Iraq War policy, to the security practices of the Intelligence Community, to the weaponization of information, all the way to conversations about how the LGBTQ community is treated both in and outside the military. Likely few-to-none would have predicted such an unassuming person would be at the center of so much controversy. That is, unless you met her when she first joined the Army and she started down a trajectory toward infamy. In hindsight, maybe it was obvious.

Chelsea Manning and I enlisted in the U.S. Army during the Surge in the fall of 2007 and attended the same U.S. Army Basic Combat Training (BCT) at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. As new recruits, we were assigned to Charlie Company, 82d Chemical Battalion, 3d Chemical Brigade. Training began 12 OCT and for me, it ended 14 DEC. For Manning, however, graduation from Charlie Company never came. Her problems began the moment she arrived on station.

During Reception and Integration, Drill Sergeants conducted what is known as “the Shark Attack”: the company’s entire Drill Sergeant cadre descends on a busload of new recruits to welcome them to their home for the next nine weeks. It is intense and it is intentionally disorienting. If the recruit displays any emotion, non-verbal reaction, or any appearance of weakness, they will immediately receive the unrelenting attention of the Cadre. They probe for mental weakness and emotional triggers, assessing who will likely need the most shaping, molding, and mentoring. To ensure sufficient stress during this event, our Cadre’s Shark Attack was enabled by a simple instruction: hold your duffel bag in front of your face. Do not let it drop below your eyes.

Private Manning, C Co, 82d

Private Manning during the ‘Shark Attack’

Every recruit had the same packing list with the same items in that green duffel bag. They all weighed the same amount. Whether you were 6’4” or 5’4”, male or female, all recruits had to carry their own weight. Understand, that no one breezes through this exercise – everybody hurts, everyone drops their bag at least once, and everyone pays the price for it, including myself. During this exercise, Manning’s problem wasn’t that she was too small or not strong enough. The problem was, she quit. As the rest of the platoon faced one way, gritting their teeth and baring it, whispering words of encouragement to each other, she stood at an about-face the opposite direction, and said she simply could not pick up her own bag.

—–

After the first day, lights came on promptly at 04:20AM every morning, accompanied by the booming voice of a Drill Sergeant blasting through the intercom system, announcing the uniform of the day. By 04:30 we were expected to have bunks made, personal hygiene conducted (clean shaven, teeth brushed, pit stick applied, etc.), wall lockers secured, and already be outside, in formation, waiting for the Drill Sergeants to initiate Accountability Report and then Physical Training (PT).

No one could accomplish all of those tasks in ten minutes. Therefore as a matter of custom everyone woke up at 04:00AM and silently conducted their business in the dark. At 04:20 when the uniform of the day was put out, half the company would be conducting personal hygiene in the latrine area where the intercom system was too faint to hear. Everyone knew that if you heard the uniform of the day, you repeated it to everyone you saw – you shouted it out. It was a team effort to achieve uniformity, because if even one person was in the wrong uniform, then the entire group was at fault. Faulty uniforms meant poor communication; poor communication indicated a lack of discipline. Undisciplined Soldiers are like nails sticking up from a wooden board: they must be hammered down.

One morning at formation there was an audible rumble on the other side of the PT pad in Manning’s direction virtually as the Drill Sergeants were walking up and long after anyone should have even been whispering. What was going on? According to most, the general story went: Manning called out the uniform of the day, waited until her squad was dressed and had moved out to the morning formation, when she then put on the real, correct uniform of the day and ran to catch up. The commotion at the formation was her saying that she heard at the last minute what the real uniform was and it wasn’t her fault they were wrong; the rest of the team apparently was having none of it. In the Army, if everyone is wrong together, then they’re still right; uniformity is one of the highest virtues in our military. If one person is technically “right” but the rest of the team is uniformly wrong, then the technically “right” person is still wrong; everyone is still punished equally. By week two everybody knew that, lived it and lived with it. Everyone, except Manning.

—–

For the trainees of Charlie 82d, the sound of Chelsea Manning’s voice may forever elicit the two words so commonly overheard from her during her six weeks: “I can’t.” In our comparison of memories over the years, fellow recruits in C Co. have confirmed for me: when the going got tough, Chelsea said, “I can’t.” The first time I heard her say it, it was during Jerry Can training. A common physical exercise used by the Drill Sergeants during the first three weeks of training to correct a deficiency was aerobic and anaerobic work while holding a five-gallon Jerry Can of water. Pushups. Sit-ups. Overhead military presses and squats. Any exercise you could do with body weight, we did with 5-Gallon jugs of water. If a recruit thought no one would notice and emptied out their jug to lighten their load, then the Cadre would order another recruit to carry two jugs. Selfish acts which caused others to suffer were dealt with swiftly within the platoons.

“Run in place. Now on your face. Now roll on your back. Stand up. Faster. Move like your hair is on fire, and the only way to put it out is go faster! “Run in place, on your face, on your back, Faster! “Runinplace,onyourface,onyourback. Faster!”

I remember Manning during one of these exercises, because she was struggling. We had to hold the Jerry Can over our heads, arms fully extended and locked at the elbows while we did squats, in cadence, counting from 1 to 10. If we made it to ten, the exercise was over. However, if a recruit got out of sequence and stood when s/he should have been squatting, we started over at 1. If a recruit dropped the can, we started over at 1. If we didn’t all count together, we started over at 1. Manning couldn’t hold the can and do the exercise, but the truth was, nobody could. The purpose never really was to get to 10. It was to inoculate you to stress and to teach you to never quit, no matter how much it hurt or how hopeless even the simplest group-task had become. When the Drill Sergeants finally reduced the goal to a 5 count, and then 3, and then to a 1-count held for just 10 seconds by everyone in unison, they let us stop. That is, everyone who had tried their hardest. A handful needed additional motivation and had to keep going. The Drill Sergeants, as intense yet consummate professionals, circled around Manning and matter-of-factly laid out the task, “get it over your head now!” It was the rest of the recruits in the group who saw this and told Manning, “C’mon, don’t quit. You’ve got this. C’mon Manning, you can do it.” And then, in that most Soldierly of acts, a handful said “Here, we’ll do it with you. We’ll do it together.” Her immediate battle buddies picked up their jugs and stood around her, doing more of the exercise, trying to coordinate with and motivate her. I remember watching with the rest of the group. She never made eye contact with any of them. There was no connection to the people trying to help her. Instead, I saw her face turned scarlet, sweat pouring off her face, grimacing. And through grit teeth, she moaned in agony, “I can’t,” and she dropped her Jerry Can.

—–

The sheer amount of physical work we did every day meant chow time was sacred. We had to march in lock step into the Dining Facility, secure our trays, keep head and eyes straight forward, elbows locked to the rear and backs straight. We had to keep communication with the kitchen serving staff short, crisp, and quiet, then move out to our tables. The Drill Sergeants waited for every chair at the table benches to have a recruit behind it, all still standing at attention, head and eyes straight forward, holding our trays exactly at chest level before they gave the commands:
set down—TRAYS
secure—–CHAIRS
take——-SEATS
“You have two minutes and forty-five seconds. Eat!”

We ate with spoons because forks and knifes took too long. We only picked food that didn’t require chewing anyway. We were entirely silent; no one would dream of talking at moments like that, and besides, we were all too hungry.

“Two minutes and fifteen seconds remaining,” the Drill Sergeants would call out across the building. We swallowed every mouthful with a swig of water so it would go down faster. We knew we’d be near throwing it up in less than 30 minutes, but for that – “one minute and fifteen seconds remaining –” that we still had food, we were happy to eat anything. Our meals were taken at only that Dining Facility, or in the field. Any food taken, consumed, or even found anywhere outside the Dining Facility was considered contraband and would be punished under Article 15 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Chow time was sacred.

At 10 seconds, the Drill Sergeant would start the countdown. God help you if you were still chewing when the count ran out.

“3. 2. 1. You’re done. You’re done! Spit it out! SPIT IT OUT. YOU ARE DONE WHEN I SAY YOU’RE DONE, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME.” Everyone understood – Drill Sergeants are not to be messed with. Their rules are laws. You do not cross them, you do not question them, you do not deviate in any way from the norms and behaviors they established way back on day one. Everyone knows that. Except Manning.

After five weeks of this same lock-step script at the Dining Facility, rehearsed the exact same way three times a day, a commotion in the middle of the facility broke everyone away from their food. Manning was standing up, away from her seat, in the middle of an aisle. What the …

Red in the face, coughing and gasping and holding her throat with one hand, Manning gurgled out, “Drill Sergeant, I’m choking. I’m choking, Drill Sergeant. I can’t breathe, I can’t – ” when she reached out a hand, and physically placed that hand on the Drill Sergeant’s forearm.

The earth might as well have split open; a private made physical contact with a Drill Sergeant. Intentionally. In one ferocious movement and a grip of steel, the Drill Sergeant threw Manning’s hand from off his arm and barked,

“Private get your hand OFF ME or I will RIP your arms out of their sockets and I will beat you to DEATH with them. Now SIT DOWN and SHUT UP!”

Manning stopped choking instantly. She put her arms down at her sides, turned away and said, “Drill Sergeant, yes Drill Sergeant, it won’t happen again.” She sat back down, and finished eating.

—–

The last time I saw Manning in person, it was in the Field during a training exercise. I remember that exercise because nearby there was a hold-over recruit from a previous BCT class who had failed his final Army Physical Fitness Test and was always around. He never quite trained with us, but he was always in the field with us wherever we went. He thought he knew the answer to everything, and he thought he was somehow in charge because he had been in the Army nine weeks longer than the rest of us. But what stood out the most about him was that he always had candy. Candy was like food, only worse. It was not allowed to be purchased or kept, consumed – it could not even be mailed in a care package unless there was enough for every member of the platoon to have some (I’ll never forget when Private Platt’s mother sent 42 Butterfinger candy bars in the mail just so her son could have one). Still, everyone knew that the holdover somehow had contraband packages of Snickers Bars and M&Ms all the time. During my basic training cycle, he came under investigation for allegedly offering to exchange packages of candy for sexual favors from the female recruits. His days were numbered, and everybody knew to steer clear of him. That is, everyone but …

At the end of the field exercise, that holdover was walking up to groups of us, offering to sell us candy for $20 a package. We all knew to keep our distance from him – he was untrustworthy, he was in trouble, and he was only going to get you in trouble too if you associated with him. And yet, Chelsea Manning bought a package of M&Ms from him for $20. I remember that scene, because Manning was not quiet about it. She was practically bragging out loud that she had contraband candy. At six weeks into basic training, it just wasn’t worth it, and yet that scene has stayed with me all these years, because for Manning, it somehow was worth it. Maybe by then, she thought she had nothing else to lose.

That was the last time I saw Chelsea Manning in person, in Basic Combat Training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Last anyone in the Company knew, she had been sent to a Discharge Unit out of our Company Area and was going to be separated for “Failure to Adapt.” I graduated in December and moved on to Advanced Individual Training (AIT) for Mandarin Chinese in California. In 2013, I met a Senior, fellow Chinese Linguist at language training class at Fort Bragg, NC who told me he had known Manning in 2008 while they were both at Fort Huachuca, AZ for training. In that same Chinese language class, I spoke to a second Senior Linguist who told me he had met Manning in 2009 in Iraq as he was rotating out of the country, and Manning’s unit was rotating in. I don’t know what it means that you can trace half of Manning’s career in the Army based on which Chinese Linguist was closest to her at the time, but I do know that she’s in the background of nearly every career of every U.S. Army intelligence analyst active in the last decade. Her actions changed fundamental practices in the DoD. Manning altered not only the way we think about information security, authentication and confidentiality, but also about the grave damage posed by the insider threat. Civilians lives may not have been radically affected, but for those in the community, there was Before Manning and there is Since Manning.

—–

The final point which need be made is not about whether the punishment fit the crime, about whether Chelsea Manning’s actions were justified, or whether the leaks endangered lives or saved civil liberties. Those are important, heady issues, but they’ve also been rehearsed and rehashed, debated, plotted, and picketed many times-over since 2010. Instead, the final point which need be made is about the environment in which Chelsea Manning grew up in the military. Its relevant that someone finally speak on the composition of Basic Training classes, Charlie 82d itself and more generally, the Army at large. That characterization is relevant for understanding Manning’s state of mind leading up to and during the theft and leaking of classified national intelligence, and in-turn helps to interpret Manning’s legacy.

Charlie 82d was a non-infantry, Basic Combat Training class composed much the same as all BCT classes, and the same way the Army as a whole is composed: by everybody, and every body-type; every ethnic background, religion, personality, and yes every sexual orientation all filling the ranks. Those variables were distributed across a bell curve of aptitudes, education levels, socio-economic status’ and geographic hometowns. In 2007, the U.S. Army was habitually failing to meet its monthly recruiting goals; the application standards relaxed and a great cross-section of humanity ended up reporting for duty that warm October at Fort Leonard Wood. In the company, there was a 17-year-old who had enlisted with a waiver, and there was: a 42-year-old mother of three who was terrified of needles; a new grandmother to a brand-new infant granddaughter; and a former coffee distributor in South America in his mid-thirties who everyone still called “Grandpa.” One recruit ironically named “Goesforth” went AWOL within 48 hours of arrival, deserted the military, and was never seen again. One recruit in fourth platoon had been homeless before he joined, and another had blown his entire first university semester’s tuition on OxyContin before he dropped out and enlisted. One recruit was a Mexican citizen who was willing to go to Iraq and fight for the United States in exchange for expedited citizenship. Another was a female with dual German/American citizenship who was so short, the German Army wouldn’t take her, so she joined up with the Americans instead. Charlie 82d had dads in their mid-thirties, and it had dads not yet old enough to buy beer. My platoon had a single mom who had been working as an exotic dancer before she raised her right hand and took the oath; another had married young, got divorced and wanted to get as far away from her Ex as possible; she figured the Middle East was probably far enough, but if he tried to find her there, he’d probably just get blown up by an IED – problem solved. Like the Army itself, the Basic Combat Training company into which Chelsea Manning entered had on-hand and present for duty the living, breathing testimonies of virtually every story within the American experience.

Its relevant that Supporters and Critics know the character of Charlie 82d, because meanwhile Chelsea Manning’s defense team and her supporters drew upon a very different picture of life in the military in order to recast the narrative and bolster her defense. Their case for leniency began with establishing sympathy for someone who was purportedly picked on, harassed, and bullied throughout her service in the Military. In a 2011 video produced by the Guardian in which reporters interviewed friends of Manning, a fellow Soldier in the discharge unit with her at Fort Leonard Wood said:

“He was a runt. And by military standards and compared with everyone who was around there – he was a runt. By military standards, “he’s a runt so pick on him”, or “he’s crazy – pick on him”, or “he’s a faggot – pick on him.” The guy took it from every side. He couldn’t please anyone. And he tried. He really did.”

This is where we need to set the record straight, because if you buy the premise that Manning had a heart of gold but was perpetually picked on by bullies anyway, then it’s a foregone conclusion that she had to finally fightback when the time came to face the biggest bully of them all; that when she saw documentation of civil liberties and human rights abuses by an unaccountable government that was terrorizing people who couldn’t fight back, she recognized herself in those victims, and ultimately had no conscionable choice but to expose those documents for the greater good of the meek everywhere.

What holes exist in that premise? These are the facts: Chelsea Manning was timid and small, but she certainly wasn’t the only one. There were dozens of recruits – male and female – in the last cycle of Charlie 82d that autumn who were under 5’4” and couldn’t have weighed more than 140lbs. Some were physically uncoordinated and seemingly had never spent a day outdoors in their entire lives. Others were natural athletes with a killer instinct that always seemed to put them on top, no matter what the challenge. Some had nothing to prove, and some had everything to prove. It wasn’t size, or stature, or speed, or strength, or even the ability to finish all the events that decided how high a recruit could hold her head in the community. That is a fact.

What is not accurate is the false and felonious image of the U.S. military on which the defense of her conduct has been, at its root, predicated: that somehow everyone in her formative years in the military was practically part of a tribe of 6’2”, overly-aggressive Alpha males pumping testosterone out their pores who ganged up on the smallest in the group and tore her apart out of hyper-machismo intolerance; that War is so brutish and nasty, that Warriors too must be. That is simply not accurate. Chelsea Manning wasn’t being picked on at the Shark Attack when the Drill Sergeants said she had to lift her own bag like everyone else, and she said she couldn’t. She wasn’t being picked on when those Soldiers tried to help motivate her to lift the Jerry Can over her head and even picked up their own and did the exercise again, with her, out of solidarity. And when she faked a choking fit in the middle of the Dining Facility, it wasn’t because someone else was tormenting her – she was tormenting herself.

Chelsea Manning was not picked on or harassed because of her gender or identity; she was not bullied because she was small or appeared easily overpowered or dominated. No, Chelsea Manning was ostracized. Because some unknown in her character prevented her from ever truly entering into that covenant of self-sacrifice upon which collective group defense depends, she could not ever satisfactorily contribute to the welfare of the group. In a social schema where the defense of the group becomes the perpetual rationale for why the group should even continue existing, Chelsea Manning either could not or would not sacrifice enough of herself to inspire loyalty among comrades. Soldiers usually adopt these values in reaction to physical and emotional stressors, to the demands of group accountability, and to their dependency on the group for survival. For that reason, by the end of Basic Combat Training most grudges have been put aside, and any rivalries have abated; this happens exactly because Soldiers have by then learned those lessons in loyalty and self-sacrifice. Everybody learns those lessons.

Hi, manuelstd! A biology teacher and a medical student here. You seem to harbor a lot of misconceptions: your presuppositions are false, concerning what gender entails, what constitutes a mental illness and what is the actual prevalence of “pretending” and “deciding”. When you’re ready for a biology and medical lesson in order to fix the problems in your statements, let me know. 🙂

Until then, please refrain from spreading misinformation on these several serious topics; thanks.

Hello Joonas! PhD in Embryology here. Your education and training should tell you that gender itself is concrete. In the simplest terms it describes chromosomal makeup and sexual identity — of which there are only two. TWO. You are either the male or the female type within the only two types of beings needed to actually join to breed more beings. This isn’t a decision or a guess — just two genders — one male, one female — it is how you got here. Yes, even if you were a test tube baby. Perhaps you should rethink your vocation if you believe gender is a matter of opinion. Believing gender is a matter of opinion in and of itself describes mental illness.

I call bullshit. I have several friends who did military service. Army, Air Force, Navy. Dated someone in Air Force as well. I know gays who enlisted and the only one who wasn’t hazed relentlessly was a guy you’d never ever think was gay. Nothing stereotypical about him. I had two friends where it would’ve been a bit easier to spot. Neither caused even an iota of the trouble you allege Chelsea engaged in, and both almost walked away due to the amount of abuse they endured, though both stayed through their enlistment durations. To the uniform call-out especially…that’s asking to be murdered. You’re attempting to state that a “runt” would purposefully single themselves out after knowingly calling out the wrong uniform, and being the ONLY recruit in the right gear? That’s a suicide plea, and you know it. The thing is, people act as though recruits because of their service are, for the most part, decent individuals. They’re given the benefit of the doubt due to the sacrifice they’re willing to make, and as far as respect, anyone who is willing to sacrifice themselves thinking they’re making a positive difference has mine, 100%. But what your story doesn’t include are all the fucking assholes and insecure weasles that take this type of opportunity to practice their “prickdom” on, and of course, it’s always one type who gets it every single time. Sure, you and other more capable servicemen may have quietly encouraged each other, but let’s get real, there are cliques in every single social circle, and whether or not the unit has to succeed or none do, there are always those the group wants to see fail, simply in hopes they DO quit, and the more cohesive of the team are left without having to “pick up their slack”. This whole story is so pointed, like Chelsea was this diabolical machine of sabotage, and the rest of you were these helpless, innocent victims of circumstance with no defenses of your own, paints such a single-toned historically unheard of situation, it’s laughable. Chelsea would have been torn to shreds by you guys, even without all this crap, because that’s what young able-bodied immature men do to those who are smaller than they are. It’s a simple fact. This all may have happened I wasn’t there, but your story reeks of B.S. and I’m not even remotely convinced of your sincerity.

I’m not sure which comment(s) you’re arguing against, but let me take issue with some of your general points as I understand them. The overwhelming majority of people I served with who I thought were gay were loyal professionals. They had the same strengths or weaknesses as any other group. That was in the era of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Pursue. Although at basic training the DS wold sometimes complain something was “gay” in the style of South Park. Later at my home unit, some closeted infantry types pretended be be hyper-masculine and engaged in anti-female, locker-room comments which (for me as a woman) made my life more difficult.

If people are getting hazed in the military, it’s illegal but also, a failure of leadership on many levels. I won’t argue with how Manning felt at Basic because I too was out of shape and a runt but the difference was…I never gave up. Somehow Manning gave up permanently throughout his career. He gave up on being a professional, being loyal, being a member of a team, and behaving with honor in tough circumstances. Manning has no excuse.

Being loyal with regards to protecting information is especially important on a deployment and in the Military Intelligence branch in general. My point is, at no point did Manning’s alleged mistreatment or confusion about his gender justify what he did. That’s what his lawyer argued in part and it’s BS. Anyone in a typical combat support unit like Manning’s knows there are many female analysts, few infantry types. Not a hyper-macho environment. unless a few leaders are like that, but they weren’t in his case. I fault his unit leadership for not having the courage to say, hey, this person is not a good fit for MI. Have him do something else. Or send him stateside. Or ease him out of the military altogether.

So yes, what Manning did what a form of sabotage. If he was having such difficulty emotionally he could perhaps could have done something else like handing out mattresses at the welcome center. But I also fault his chain of command for not moving him out sooner when it was obvious he was a problem.

So by those correlating parallels this also means you have a propensity to betray those around you, and go out of your way to sabotage them and all with a complete disregard for the chain of command? I wouldn’t attempt to use correlation = causation in regards to yourself and someone you’re speaking out against unless you want the same standards to be applied across the board. You’re either clones or sovereign individuals, but regardless your experiences aren’t hers, so you’re doing yourself quite the disservice there. Also, very good punctuation at the end. Pot/Kettle?

You have no clue. Maybe your dream army has pillow fights and feel good sessions around a campfire while singing kumbaya, but I want a military that is tough and ruthless when it comes to protecting it’s citizens. Go live in Sweden.

now hold up, now apparently our military is supposed to stand for the Constitution, correct? well having a standing army just so happens to be unconstitutional, and if y’all are supposed to fight any enemy of the Constitution either here or abroad, the real Dream Army would arrest any governing individual group or branch who is perpetuating the use of a standing army and after those people were arrested they would then quit. that would be the way to go about it if you were actually doing what you swore to do based on what the Constitution states and the Bill of Rights.

Are you being serious, Bobbie? Cruel and manipulative? I’ve never served myself, but anyone with sense should be able to see that they’re doing these soldiers a favor by fostering group cohesion and discipline, without which soldiers wouldn’t have much hope of surviving once people start shooting at them. If you’re going to be sending people into a combat zone, where they’re likely to be facing hostile fire and improvised explosives, don’t you think the training to prepare them should maybe be a bit more rigorous than trying out for the high school football team?

well you’re right about the Hostile fire and wanting them to stay in a cohesive state with a group based mentality. The problem is when you look at video footage such as what was leaked by Chelsea Manning, with helicopter Pilots being so bored they could not stand to not be killing things. so after begging essentially to be allowed to open fire, and finally being granted that little privilege, let us to 2 American journalists being killed and Med crew that tried to help them, and fortunately the two children that were in the van that was struck by helicopter rounds survived although those Pilots didn’t think so at the time and were laughing about how they should have known better than to bring their kids to where they were firing. So what about that is highly cognitive and strategically employed tactical genius? because to me that seems quite a lot like mindless killing, of Americans no less. Yet to expose this, and by this I mean the killing of Americans by Americans whose very duty is to be protecting the lives of Americans, is somehow more of a betrayal then the people responsible for murdering our own. Seems like higher thinking has taken a backseat to Mindless obedience.

Just because you cant be one and couldn’t handle it ,you insult.War is not fun,and is not fought by those who want to be snowflakes and wear their feelings on their shoulders.Training is hard because war is hard.training is stressful because war is stressful.BT builds unity and teamwork and to get through it you must depend on your battle buddies and they have to be able to depend on you.Bobbie you are an idiot and a mindless citizen who has all the freedom our Great Country offers and you insult those who make that freedom possible.Next time you want to insult a soldier,how about getting from behind you faceless computer and do it to their face out in the open.Alas I am sure you don’t have the guts to do that.

The military isn’t mindless. There is a method to the madness. They break you down to build you up and to create team building. There is also the need to have “muscle memory” when fighting for this country so ignorant little twats like you can have your liberal thoughts and rants

Bobbie ,until and you ever go through military training,you have absolutely no idea of what is entailed or what it is designed to do……..the training is designed to take the individual and make him or her part of a cohesive team that will defend this country with their dying breath ,if need, but people like you will probably never understand that

And all your comment does is confirm that you’re just another run-of-the-mill spineless coward that tries to mask it with a veneer of pseudo-intellectuality and faux-dissident posturing. You’re a truly boring one-dimensional individual who has likely sacrificed and achieved very little in a predictably shallow life.

I entered basic training in Ft Sill, Oklahoma in July 1987. I weighed less than 120 and was 5’4″. I was to become a cannon crewman….not the softest job in the Army. I was not an athlete in school, nor was I outgoing….I guess I was more shy than anything. Yes the physical aspect and the mind game aspect of training then was hard on a person….but the encouragement from the drills and fellow recruits was also there.
I ended up making the Army, and combat arms my career. The Manning story as told from his/her “friends” was not even close to being believable right from the moment I read it. Nobody wants anyone in their unit/squad/team to fail no matter how much they don’t like them.
Thank you for taking the time to write the story of Manning down. It is very accurate as to how and WHY things are done in BCT. It is clear that the person you wrote about was mentally weak, yes somehow was passed through the system.
As for Mannings’ actions with the information leak: Many have said that Manning did this to expose a war crime. Most decent people would understand that….but what they fail to look at is the rest of the “documents” Manning passed on for release, and how they had nothing to do with any war crime, yet caused damage to the Army, the nation and to many individuals lives.

We have a place for guys who don’t follow the rules constantly or question what is right. They’re called our Special Forces. Manning though wasn’t being some special boy by not following rules. As somebody who has served, trust me on knowing how these types of people are. If what the author is portraying is correct then these are the exact people who slack on everything, constantly whine, and put others in danger by their pure discontent.

She never should have joined in the first place and the Army needs to vet these people out. The issue is logistical and financial but in the long run it makes for a better Army/military.

It’s an interesting background story, but why did you insist on identifying a man as a woman??? Manning was, is, and will always be a male, not a female. No amount of surgery, self-identifying, or wishful thinking will change that. Please revise this story to reflect his actual gender if you want us to take your story seriously.

Wrong. Traitors to God and country should be jailed indefinitely, if not executed outright. The only reason Manning wasn’t charged with treason was because he played up the “I’m a sensitive nu-male who had good intentions, pity me” angle and later revised it to “I’m a woman in a man’s body, pity me.” Of course Obama took the bait and commuted (but did not pardon) him as one of the last acts of his presidency.

As hard and mean as a Drill Sgt. may seem,his goal is to make you a soldier,he doesn’t want you to fail.If you fail,he has failed.He will go as far as a soldier will let him to help and make sure he/she gets through.And I don’t care how great a soldier you are.Every soldier has felt the wrath of his/her Drill Sgt..Just a fact of BT.

Thank you for sharing your personal experience with Chelsea Manning. And yes, thank you for addressing her as she wishes to be addressed. She may be a flawed person, yet why disrespect her? Honestly who here on this thread has done e v e r y t h i n g right by your wives, exes, daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, parents, neighbors, employers..heck, while I am at it how often do you drive drunk or drive safely? Maybe Chelsea was a jerk, and I don’t know all the classified (read they were not Top Secret which was what Watergate was about) documents she revealed. Chelsea was a catalyst for Wikileaks revealing our war crimes..and without compromising peoples lives (like our former Prez outing undercover operators publically by name)…Nonetheless, Chelsea is about the truth and it is so uncomfortable. Thank you for sharing. I will pass this along on my pro-Chelsea page.

Bobbie ,until and you ever go through military training,you have absolutely no idea of what is entailed or what it is designed to do……..the training is designed to take the individual and make him or her part of a cohesive team that will defend this country with their dying breath ,if need, but people like you will probably never understand that

Meeh. So let’s hear your pals tell us what you were like in basic training, Jay. That is if they remember such an irrelevant person. Manning made a change for good. You’ve done absolutely nothing except write this clickbait fly-by-night blog. Hey, look at me, I’m an intelligence analyst…

There is something fishy here. When I reported to military training, there were no personal cameras allowed. Where did the pictures of Manning at BCT come from? Especially the picture from the Shark Attack?

It wasn’t a personal camera; the company XO took the photos with the intent of publushing all of the BCT photos for the cycle in the class yearbook/DVD. I bought the yearbook and DVD, which had 100’s of photos on it of everyone (not just Manning).

I’m disturbed by the revelation that you and other recruits knew of a fellow who was being investigated for predatory behavior to female recruits. You say his days were numbered, but surely avoiding him was not going to make him less dangerous? Why was he able to exercise such free reign given what the allegations implied about his character? It seems like a major oversight if the system in the military can’t make it safe for other recruits and has to rely simply on everyone “knowing” someone is dangerous. If what you said about Manning having lack of friends do to her inability to complete the tasks then she would have been vulnerable to his manipulations, which makes the fact that they were allowed to stay around for at least nine weeks longer than you very disturbing. How many people after Manning do you think he may have targeted?

Thank you for your service, but this piece paints a picture of the military that I can understand more why Chelsea would be have difficulty getting someone to listen to her, despite all the talk of comradeship.

The Army has reduced standard to include drug abusers, felons, and people with mental illness. Nothing can go wrong with that? 6 years served and this article is a B.S. character assassination by another conservative prick who wants a fascist police state. Liberals are artists, creative thinkers and people who give a shit about others and our future. I was a linguist as well. In German. The reason you are not speaking German is because of a gay, brilliant, British mathematician who beat the Enigma code by inventing the first computer. Not by muscled fighting teams. Alan Turing ring a bell? Read. You might learn something. Jug heads without a heart like the author are without compassion for others. Linguist, NATO, combat operations. 2167th communications squadron. 3rd Herd out of Tinker AFB. I served, asshole. I’m glad I got out so I don’t have to listen to mindless killing machines who have to conform and really serve my country. Sucking off the welfare tit in the military? I couldn’t wait to be done with it. 1 percent see action. Get over yourself and get a real job and stop wasting tax payers money playing war.

You’re very generous for consistently referring to Bradley Manning by the name and identity he invented to (try to) escape from the consequences his sordid legacy. I don’t know if I could be so generous in entertaining such a blatant delusion, and I don’t even know the man. I can only imagine how difficult it must be for you who did know him, who knows better than us Internet looky-loos ever will how patently false and disingenuous the charade of “Chelsea Manning” is. And how dangerous, now that this self-serving traitor is attempting to parlay his infamy into public office. One can only hope your story, and the other stories of Manning’s misconduct that are doubtlessly out there, get wider attention in the weeks and months to come. Manning should be rotting in a cell to this day, but thanks to the diseased political climate we currently endure there is a very real chance this traitor to God and country could claim a seat in the United States Senate.

Well here we are talking about a emasculatedball less pussy who commits treason isn’t taken out and shot like he slashed she should have been and now gets to run for US Senate in Maryland are the people in Maryland that fucking stupid? How that was even allowed in the first place is beyond my imagination and has told me that this is the state of American politics and the unin forcement of our laws. Which leads me to another point about women being in combat I’m sorry to say you that the fair sex is always going to be the weak link in combat units that’s just a scientific biological fact unless they lowered the standards and allow them to qualify. Secondly the military regardless of what branch is not a goddamn social construct it is a killing fighting defending Force so whether you’re a woman or transgender or what the fuck you are you’re not doing us any good there are other places to serve let the big boys be the big boys believe me America will feel safer

OP: Yep, that’s how it is. Winnowing the doers vs. from the excuse-makers that make up most of society.

In the Vietnam war we had a small, runty, dadless, openly gay, momma’s-boy, lisping draftee in training who from day one realized this was his chance and so was a team player and took no crap, starting with the Drill Sergeant but especially from himself. He was given 100 push-ups, he did 200. Gave 300%. By the end of training he was the most popular and we called him ‘Little Spartan.’ Hell of a warrior, wounded twice, medals galore, lost the lisp, went lifer, OCS, and ended up a major still sending one paycheck a month to his dear ol’ mom. Retired into local contracting, hard worker out with his crews at dawn every day. Started supporting libertarian causes–guns, gays, government made smaller, give 10% of your money to good causes–said the Commies were angling at taking over the military and disarming the militia so watch out. Somewhere along the way he decided he was ‘bi’ and ended up marrying a hubba-hubba MBA gal 20 years his junior on discharge and having 5 great kids all doing great now. 14 hour days, 6 days a week working on their properties as she kept the books and financing. Never saw a happier couple.

They died a few years ago in a car accident. Some drunk ‘I c-a-a-a-a-n-‘-t excuse-maker got him in the end. Jeez. He total-lee had Manning’s number to judge by your article. Told me the way to handle a well-intentioned idiot like Manning was like in some Victor Hugo novel or the other : Congressional Medal of Honor, kiss on both cheeks, then promptly shot at dawn.

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